New Conductor for the Symphony Orchestra

We are very pleased to announce that Ralph Allwood, former Precentor and Director of Music at Eton, will be conducting our symphony orchestra this year. In his time at Eton he established the Eton Choral Courses,

which are now attended by 400 singers between the ages of 16 and 20 each year; he is also a judge for the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and director of the National Youth Choir of Wales. More recently he has established a new choir, Inner Voices, formed from 12-18 year olds from 10 comprehensive schools in London. Having held his post at Eton for 26 years and now devoting most of his time to choral work, he describes his new role with us as a "lovely prospect" as he knew he would miss the orchestral work very much - "I love orchestras". He is proud to be joining the music department at St Paul's, which has such a "big tradition" and "amazing pedigree". Although he has only met the girls a few times, he describes them as being "very musical", "fantastic" and not all that different from the boys at Eton (except the uniform, of course!). They will be working on Sibelius's Third Symphony in time for the Christmas Concert.  The piece is challenging and he comments that the "orchestra seem determined to work hard; they need to and will want to because it's such a good piece".